The Commentariat -- June 26, 2014

Internal links removed; graphics removed.

Since you suspicious lot are not buying the scam financial & dietary products I've been hawking here, I have tried yet another stunt to lose my Armenian "business partner." I'll give it a day to see if Stunt 2 works. -- Marie of Armenia

Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) announced Wednesday that he intended to initiate a federal lawsuit seeking to declare President Obama’s executive orders as an unconstitutional power grab by one branch of the government." ...

... Dana Milbank: "To sue the president, Republicans are tying themselves in ideological knots. After howling about excessive lawsuits, they are embracing long-shot litigation. After lamenting activist judges, they are now insisting that judges be more activist and shed their long-standing reluctance to adjudicate disputes between the elected branches.... But the real problem with the lawsuit approach is that it misunderstands the cause of the problem: congressional dysfunction." ...

... Jonathan Capehart has a terrific post on the GOP's history of moves to obstruct President Obama (and government in general, of course), of which this latest is only one. And, yeah, crazy ol' George Will is still in the loop; his advocacy last weekend for just such a move certainly did not spring from the head of Zeus George. ...

... Capehart has a follow-up post which features this chart from the Brookings Institution:

CLICK ON THE CHART TO SEE A LARGER IMAGE.     ... Capehart, citing Brookings: "Republicans are right: President Obama is absolutely unique … in how infrequently he issues them! The last president to issue executive orders at such a slow rate was Grover Cleveland who served from 1885-1889 & 1893-1897. What’s more, Republican complaints about President Obama’s use of such powers is a bit ironic, given historically Republican presidents use executive orders more frequently." As for Capehart, he call Boehner's lawsuit "a dress rehearsal for Obama’s impeachment." ...

    ... CW: Worth Noting: there are executive orders & executive orders. While I suspect the chart is a more-or-less accurate reflection of presidential assertion, if, for instance, FDR had limited his orders to fixing the date of Thanksgiving Day (he didn't) while Dubya had used them solely for starting wars (he didn't), then the chart would be meaningless. A chart of "meaningful" or "substantive" orders would be highly subjective. One might be able to put a dollar value to each order -- though again conclusions would be nebulous -- but even then, does an order that saves $1BB cancel out one that costs $1BB, or is the total there $2BB? 

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "In a sweeping victory for privacy rights in the digital age, the Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously ruled that the police need warrants to search the cellphones of people they arrest. While the decision will offer protection to the 12 million people arrested every year, many for minor crimes, its impact will most likely be much broader. The ruling almost certainly also applies to searches of tablet and laptop computers, and its reasoning may apply to searches of homes and businesses and of information held by third parties like phone companies." The opinion, by Chief Justice Roberts, is here. ...

... Amy Howe of ScotusBlog explains the ruling "in plain English." ...

... In Salon, Marcy Wheeler links the decision with the Snowden disclosures (and to an earlier Sotomayor opinion). CW: I'm surprised others have not remarked on the Snowden connection. As for this being a liberal opinion, I'm not so sure. I think conservatives have always been attuned to privacy rights, though it's tough for them because they love the police state law-and-order so much.

... CW: In a column titled "The Supreme Court Justices Have Cellphones, Too," Linda Greenhouse amplifies what I wrote a few days ago about conservatives lacking empathy: "I had planned to conclude my discussion of the court and the search cases with a mention of 'empathy,' the ability to put oneself in someone else’s shoes, so often missing from the Supreme Court’s criminal law decisions but perhaps on display here. But on reflection, it’s not really empathy. The justices are walking in their own shoes. The ringing cellphone could be theirs — or ours."

Adam Liptak & Emily Steel of the New York Times: "In a case with far-reaching implications for the television industry, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that Aereo, a start-up streaming service, had violated copyright laws by capturing broadcast signals on miniature antennas and delivering them to subscribers for a fee. The 6-3 decision was a victory for the major television networks, which had argued that Aereo’s business model amounted to a theft of their programming. The judges’ ruling leaves the current broadcast model intact while imperiling Aereo’s viability as a business after just over two years in existence.... In a dissent that expressed distaste for Aereo’s business model, Justice Antonin Scalia said the service had identified a loophole in the law. “It is not the role of this court to identify and plug loopholes,” he wrote.Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. joined the dissent." The opinion, written by Justice Breyer, is here. ...

... Lyle Denniston of ScotusBlog analyzes the opinion.

Hannah Fairfield & Adam Liptak of the New York Times on the liberal views of individual justices, based on their 2013 opinions:

CW: Sam Alito & Clarence Thomas are liberal 40 percent of the time. Really? This would get the right wing a-squawkin' -- if they only read the Times.

Jessica Miller, et al., of the Salt Lake Tribune: "A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that states outlawing same-sex marriage are in violation of the U.S. Constitution. By upholding a Utah judge’s decision, a three-member panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver became the first appeals court in the nation to rule on the issue, setting a historic precedent that voter-approved bans on same-sex marriage violate the Fourteenth Amendment rights of same-sex couples to equal protection and due process. But the court immediately stayed the implementation of its decision, pending an anticipated appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Utah attorney general’s office said Wednesday it will initiate that appeal."

Steve Benen: "This was the worst quarter for economic growth since the first quarter of 2009 – when the economy was facing a massive crisis. So, is this GDP report cause for alarm? It’s certainly not good news, but for a few reasons, it’s probably best to keep the handwringing in check. For one thing, most economists and financial-industry analysts expect the economy to bounce back in the second quarter, which ends next week." Also, unlike in 2009, the economy is adding jobs, not hemorrhaging them.

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "The Office of Congressional Ethics, in a preliminary review, unanimously concluded in March that there was 'substantial reason to believe that Representative [Michael] Grimm [R-N.Y.] threatened a reporter with bodily harm and engaged in a threatening or menacing act that created a fear of immediate injury,' which would violate local law in the District of Columbia as well as House ethics rules. The investigation took place after Mr. Grimm, a second-term Republican from Staten Island and a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, threatened to 'break' a NY1 reporter and throw him off a House office building balcony at the end of a television interview with the reporter. Any further investigation of the threats against the NY1 reporter, Michael Scotto, is being put off at the request of federal criminal investigators. They separately charged Mr. Grimm with fraud in April...." ...

... CW: It's reassuring to know, isn't it, that members of Congress find this kind of behavior unethical? --

Matt Apuzzo of the New York Times: "More than four dozen Iraqi citizens are scheduled to travel to Washington to testify in court against the former Blackwater guards who they say fired wildly on unarmed citizens, leaving 17 Iraqis dead."

Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "The Obama administration’s embrace of targeted killings using armed drones risks putting the United States on a 'slippery slope' into perpetual war and sets a dangerous precedent for lethal operations that other countries might adopt in the future, according to a report by a bipartisan panel that includes several former senior intelligence and military officials.The group found that more than a decade into the era of armed drones, the American government has yet to carry out a thorough analysis of whether the costs of routine secret killing operations outweigh the benefits."

Maya Rhodan of Time: "The Department of Veterans Affairs said Wednesday that two senior officials are stepping down next week as the agency looks to rebound from a scandal over concealing long wait times for veterans to get care. The VA said the resignation of Will A. Gunn, the current General Counsel, and the replacement of Dr. Robert Jesse, the acting Under Secretary for Health, are 'aimed at accelerating Veterans’ access to quality health care and rebuilding the trust of America’s Veterans.'”

Oboy. Another Issa-generated scandal: the EPA can't retrieve some 2009 e-mails Darrell Issa says he has to have. This Lost E-Mails thing is a bonanza for him. He can just keep asking agencies for more e-mails. Not infrequently, he'll find out their antiquated archival system crashed. Then he calls a presser & yells SCANDAL!!! COVER-UP!!! Why, Issa hard has to do any work at all. ...

... Dave Weigel: "New IRS Scandal: Lois Lerner Thought About Doing Something, Then Didn’t Do It."

Ari Rabin-Havt, in Salon: WalMart "fact-checks" Tim Egan's last column -- with anecdotes. Or less.

Senate Race

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: In helping Republican Sen. Thad Cochran win the GOP primary against Tea party challenger Chris McDaniel, Mississippi's black voters remember the martyred Rev. George Lee of Belzoni, who fought for black voting rights in the 1950s. “'I’m sure that George Lee would be smiling at the impact that black voters have had in trying to determine the next senator for the state of Mississippi, 50 years after the Freedom Summer, and the passage of the civil rights bill,” []Wardell] Walton, who served as mayor [of Belzoni] from 2005 to 2013, said in a telephone interview after the polls closed. 'His life and death was not in vain.'” ...

... Harry Enten of Five-Thirty-Eight: "... we have county-level results to go on, and that data [sic.] suggests that traditionally Democratic voters provided Cochran with his margin of victory." ...

... Here's Another Way to Put It. Daniel Strauss of TPM: "Conservative Freakout Blames 'Uncle Tom' And Voter Fraud For McDaniel Loss." ...

... New York Times Editors: "Now it’s time for Mr. Cochran to return the favor by supporting a stronger Voting Rights Act and actively working to reduce his party’s extreme antigovernment policies." ...

     ... Update: Sam Levine of the Huffington Post: "In an interview with HuffPost Live, Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi NAACP, said that Cochran could thank black voters by supporting efforts to re-establish protections in the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court struck down last year." As Johnson points out, Cochran would have lost if not for the civil rights movement's efforts to restore voting rights to black Southerners.

Anna Palmer of Politico: "On Wednesday afternoon, [McDaniel's] campaign released a statement saying they would look into 'irregularities' before deciding whether to challenge his loss." ...

... CW: My favorite part of Palmer's report: "Senate Conservatives Fund’s Ken Cuccinelli hung up on a POLITICO reporter when asked if they would consider challenging the result in court." Emphasis added. I recall Kate Madison's saying that Little Kenny had obnoxiously good manners. Apparently he got over that. ...

... Ed Kilgore: "... what these birds are really complaining about is black participation in a 'white primary.' This is certainly not an argument consistent with broadening the appeal of the GOP or the conservative movement."

Yo, Chris. The GOP Presidential Primaries Are for Losers, Too. Steve M. thinks McDaniel is setting his sights way too low: "He should declare himself a Republican candidate for president. He should say he's taking on the entire party establishment.... Could he actually win it? Maybe not -- but just being a contender would open up a much more elevated level of right-wing grift to him. Go for it, Chris. Visit Iowa and New Hampshire soon."

Dave Weigel of Slate: Actually, the Tea party has had a pretty bad primary season all around, Eric Cantor's defeat notwithstanding. ...

... Molly Ball of the Atlantic. "The Tea party blew it.... Tuesday's Republican primaries were the Tea Party's last chance. And the Tea Party struck out. In Mississippi, challenger Chris McDaniel failed to dethrone six-term incumbent Senator Thad Cochran in the second round of their hard-fought contest. In Oklahoma, Representative James Lankford won by a massive margin over conservative favorite T.W. Shannon. The Tea Party industrial complex — groups like the Tea Party Patriots and FreedomWorks, figures like Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz — invested heavily in both races and came up short. Now both of these red states will almost assuredly send Republican senators to Washington who owe the national Tea Party nothing, and quite likely wish it ill.... In state after state this Republican primary season—particularly in Senate races—candidates acceptable to the party's business wing have defeated, co-opted, or marginalized right-wing populists." ...

... Palin, of course, remains the gracious, articulate loser she always was. ...

     ... CW: Funny thing is, it sounds to me as if the towns of the Mississippi Delta where people came out to vote for Cochran are precisely the sort of places Palin had in mind when she described "real America":

We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation. This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans. -- Sarah Palin, in Greensboro, North Carolina, October 2008

Whatevah could be the difference?

OR, Maybe Gail Collins Gets It Right: "Nobody came straight out and said: 'Look, Mississippi gets three bucks back from the federal government for every dollar we send in. Don’t kill the golden goose.' But the message was pretty clear, and in some ways a little revolutionary. Like voters in many poor, conservative states, Mississippians have spent decades happily deluding themselves that they’re victims of Washington rather than its top beneficiaries. You could argue that Thad Cochran staged an intervention for his state’s residents, in which he pierced, at least temporarily, their veil of denial."

Congressional Race

Kate Taylor of the New York Times: "Representative Charles B. Rangel, the Harlem Democrat who said he wanted to be able to decide on his own when to retire from a career in Congress that began in 1971, held off a determined challenge by State Senator Adriano D. Espaillat to win the primary for a run for a 23rd term. Mr. Rangel’s lead of about 1,800 votes in the primary held on Tuesday was enough to overcome any gains Mr. Espaillat could make in the counting of absentee and affidavit ballots filled out by voters at the polls, The Associated Press reported on Wednesday afternoon, citing new information from the New York City Board of Elections. Mr. Rangel had 47.4 percent of the vote; Mr. Espaillat, 43.6 percent."

The Commentariat -- June 25, 2014

Internal links removed.

Martin Matishak of the Hill: "Republican lawmakers tasked with finalizing legislation to reform the Veterans Affairs Department slammed an independent cost estimate of the revamp on Tuesday. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the Senate bill, passed earlier this month, would cost $35 billion, and up to $50 billion if the measure was fully implemented after two years. The budget office said a similar measure adopted by the House would cost $44 billion.... Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, has said the bill would cost $2 billion and would be paid for through emergency funds. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who hammered out the Senate version of the legislation with Sanders, called the estimate 'wildly inaccurate' if looked at from a 'rational viewpoint.'" CW: Okay, so somewhere between $2BB & $50BB, give or take.

... Daniel Neuhauser of Roll Call: "Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, told Republicans Tuesday he could have an announcement within days on whether the House will file a lawsuit against President Barack Obama, challenging the executive actions that have become the keystone of the administration. The lawsuit could set up a significant test of constitutional checks and balances, with the legislative branch suing the executive branch for ignoring its mandates, and the judiciary branch deciding the outcome."

Cruel Nation. Charles Pierce: "... there is something different abroad in the politics now, perhaps because we are in the middle of an era of scarcity and because we have invested ourselves in a timid culture of austerity and doubt. The system seems too full now of opportunities to grind and to bully. We have politicians, most of whom will never have to work another day in their lives, making the argument seriously that there is no role in self-government for the protection and welfare of the political commonwealth as that term applies to the poorest among us."

Zeke Miller of Time: Dick Cheney keeps talking, has no regrets about Iraq. Also, fond of Egypt's President al-Sisi, who unceremoniously deposed the last elected president.

Today in Officially Encouraging Assassination. David Catanese of U.S. News: "Asked how [Hillary] Clinton would fare in Arkansas if she pursued the presidency in 2016, 2nd Congressional District chairman Johnny Rhoda [R] told U.S. News, 'She'd probably get shot at the state line.'" ...

     ... Update. Ha Ha, Just Kidding about the Assassination Thing. Colin Campbell of Business Insider: "'That comment was taken way out of context.... It certainly was not meant in a threatening or hostile way at all. It was just a comment. Perhaps I used the wrong word,' Second Congressional District Chairman Johnny Rhoda told Business Insider on Tuesday. 'It was completely blown out of proportion.' Rhoda, who has been described as a prominent member of his state's Republican Party, did not dispute the accuracy of the quote.... [U.S. News Reporter David] Catanese disputed the notion that the quote was taken out of context. 'Oh, yes, "taken out of context,'" Catanese wrote to Business Insider, dryly. 'As in -- taken out of our on-the-record conversation and into print.'" ...

... CW Note to Yahoos on the Meaning of "Out of Context." If I say, "How will Hillary fare in Arkansas?" and you say, "She'll be shot," the remark is in context. Asked & answered. If you make a long, rambling reply, & somewhere in there you say, "It's shocking, I know, but I've heard people say she'll be shot," then isolating "she'll be shot" as a stand-alone remark would be taking it out of context & would misrepresent your meaning & intent. You weren't saying "she'll be shot"; you've heard other people say that, & you're not condoning the sentiment nor suggesting it is your own. Catanese did not misrepresent Rhoda's remark; he did not take it out of context. ...

     ... Context is also circumstance. You could find hundreds of instances of Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert's making horribly antisocial remarks. But when you find out they're making those remarks on satirical TV shows, you realize they mean something entirely different. Of course context is usually more subtle than that. If I were a Hillary supporter, for instance, & I said, "She'll be shot," I'd be saying it as a warning of the hostile, dangerous environment which Rhoda & his ilk have created. The context here is my general point-of-view & is not limited to a particular Q&A. ...

... Ann Friedman in New York on how men -- and the NRA -- compare & contrast guns and women. It's all about control. CW: I connected this to the "She'll be shot" story for a reason.

Brett Logiurato of Business Insider: "Analysts are starting to warn about the possibility of the second government shutdown in two years, due to the looming fight over the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank.... The dispute over the bank has made some unusual allies -- the White House and the Republican establishment-friendly Chamber of Commerce both pressed the case for the bank's renewal on Monday.... Four top House Republicans are opposed to reauthorizing the bank -- [Kevin] McCarthy, incoming House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana), House Financial Services Committee Chair Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), and House Budget Chair Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin). But their Republican counterparts in the Senate -- as well as Republican governors -- have been more supportive in public statements about the bank. Moreover, GOP senators wouldn't want to risk a shutdown with a Senate majority on the line."

Drones! Not so Much. Sam Frizell of Time: "The Federal Aviation Administration is upholding a ban on using drones for commercial purposes, including delivering packages, according to a memo released this week. The FAA has long said that commercial drone use is illegal, but a federal judge ruled in March that the FAA must accept public comment before adopting the rules, according to Ars Technica. The recent memo is a call for public input on its rules."

Congressional Races

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "With an unusual assist from African-American voters and other Democrats who feared his opponent, Senator Thad Cochran on Tuesday beat back a spirited challenge from State Senator Chris McDaniel, triumphing in a Republican runoff and defeating the Tea Party in the state where the movement's hopes were bright." ...

... Geoff Pender, et al., of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger: "But McDaniel didn't concede Tuesday night and in a speech to supporters referenced 'dozens of irregularities' in voting Tuesday and indicated he would challenge the results over Democrats voting in the Republican primary." CW: Because sometimes what's both legal & common practice is unfair. Ya know, Chris, that's what the South is all about. It's just that you're not usually on the short end of the unfair stick.

Nikita Stewart of the New York Times: "Representative Charles B. Rangel, seeking a 23rd term, held a slim lead in a fierce battle early Wednesday with State Senator Adriano D. Espaillat in their primary election contest, a rematch that was largely fought along ethnic and generational lines. With 100 percent of precincts reporting after 1 a.m., Mr. Rangel led by just over 1,800 votes, or 47.4 percent to 43.6 percent."

Gubernatorial Race

John Wagner & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown cruised past his two rivals in Maryland's bitter Democratic gubernatorial primary on Tuesday, setting up a November contest with GOP nominee Larry Hogan, a Cabinet secretary under the state's last Republican chief executive. Brown, who would be Maryland's first African American governor and only the third elected in the nation, received about half the Democratic vote in an election marked by lackluster voter interest."

As much as it hurts my feelings, I am embedding the video -- mentioned in today's Comments -- of John Oliver's segment exposing the sale of unregulated dietary supplements. I take umbrage at Oliver's position because, as some readers have learned, I am inadvertently hawking this shit myself (see yesterday's Commentariat; also James S.'s comment on same). -- Marie of Armenia

... P.S. If you're still getting ads purportedly from me, let me know.

News Ledes

AP: "Sanctions aimed at key economic sectors in Russia because of its threatening moves in Ukraine might be delayed because of positive signals from Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Obama administration officials."

Hill: "The U.S. economy felt the worst aftershock of the recession yet in the first quarter of the year, shrinking 2.9 percent. The third and final revision of Commerce Department data shows the quarter, weighed down by a brutal winter, was even worse economically than previously thought. The government had estimated the economy shrank by 1 percent in the first three months of the year. The last time the economy shrank by so much was in 2009, when the nation was still in the midst of a recession."

AFP: "Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Wednesday ruled out forming a national emergency government to confront a Sunni militant offensive that has overrun large parts of the country." ...

... The Hill: "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Wednesday rejected calls to create a new national unity government that the Obama administration has been pushing.... Al-Maliki, however, said he is still committed to launching the process that would form a new government.... Secretary of State John Kerry received a commitment from al-Maliki at a meeting in Baghdad on Monday that he would initiate the process by July 1 that would pave the way for a new government."

New York Times: "Eli Wallach, who was one of his generation's most prominent and prolific character actors in film, onstage and on television for more than 60 years, died on Tuesday. He was 98."

The Commentariat -- June 24, 2014

Internal links removed; graphic removed.

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Romania.

-- Dorothy Parker, 1937

No, I am not selling Asian fruit that burns fat. Google sent me a notice early Monday morning that someone in Armenia was using my old password to access my gmail account. Google told me to change the password immediately, which I did. Two Several readers, however, have written to me that they got crazy messages "from" me delivered hours after I changed my password. I may have to cancel the account, but I'll give it a day or two. Meanwhile, I can't tell who's getting what, as the offending e-mails don't show up in my "sent" mailbox. -- Marie of Armenia

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday handed President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency a victory in its efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources like power plants, even as it criticized what it called the agency's overreaching. 'E.P.A. is getting almost everything it wanted in this case,' Justice Antonin Scalia said in summarizing the decision from the bench. '... Under our holdings, E.P.A. will be able to regulate sources responsible for 83 percent of those emissions.' ... That part of the decision, which effectively sustained regulation of nearly all the sources the agency had sought to regulate, was decided by a 7-to-2 vote. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined that part of the decision.... Another part of the decision rejected, in harsh terms, the agency's primary rationale for the regulations.... 'An agency has no power to "tailor" legislation to bureaucratic policy goals by rewriting unambiguous statutory terms,] Justice Scalia wrote. Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. joined that part of the decision, which was decided by a 5-to-4 vote." ...

... Scott Lemieux of the American Prospect: "As Justice Breyer notes in his persuasive dissent, the EPA's response is preferable to Scalia's reading of the law: 'What sense does it make to read the Act as generally granting the EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and then to read it as denying that power with respect to the programs for large stationary sources at issue here?' ... Having said that, the majority's opinion (which is notably lacking in the conservative talk radio-style pronouncements that have increasingly saturated Scalia's work) could have been much worse." CW: Yo, Scott. Scalia doesn't have to make sense. All that science stuff is just theory. So whatever. ...

... Lyle Denniston of ScotusBlog translates the rulings. Excellent explanation, as usual. ...

... New York Times Editors: "The Clean Air Act is a complex and often confusing piece of legislation, especially when it comes to confronting the challenges of global warming, which were not fully understood when the original law was passed in 1970.... The case, Utility Air Regulatory Group v. E.P.A., preserves the government's ability to confront global warming while also demonstrating Congress's persistent failure to update the law to meet modern needs. In the absence of congressional action, the E.P.A. was left alone to deal with an impossible situation." ...

... CW: The EPA is trying to confront the realities identified by today's scientists under the restrictions of a law that is older than the majority of Americans (and many of the scientists). Think of that. If we had a real Congress, when the Supreme Court -- rightly or wrongly -- identified a technical difficulty with a law, & that's really what this is, the Congress would just update the law to eliminate the snafu. But we have what we have: a Fred Flintstone Congress.

Kevin Freking of the AP: " A top federal investigator has identified 'a troubling pattern of deficient patient care' at Veterans Affairs facilities around the country that she says was pointed out by whistleblowers but downplayed by the department. The problems went far beyond the extraordinarily long wait time for some appointments -- and the attempts to cover them up -- that has put the department under intense scrutiny. In a letter Monday to President Barack Obama, Carolyn Lerner of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel cited canceled appointments with no follow up, drinking water contaminated with the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease and improper handling of surgical equipment and supplies. One veteran was admitted to a long-term mental health facility but didn't get a comprehensive psychiatric evaluation for eight years." ...

... The New York Times story, by Richard Oppel, is here.

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Representative Darrell Issa of California, the Republican who is leading one of the investigations into the Internal Revenue Service's scrutiny of Tea Party groups, accused the I.R.S. commissioner on Monday of lying, an allegation that only deepened the partisan mistrust about the motivations behind the numerous congressional inquiries into the matter." Read the whole article. ...

It's vile enough to look a man in the face and accuse him of perjury without submitting any evidence. It is much worse when all the evidence supports the version of the facts of the man you are facing. -- Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-W.D.C.-non-voting) to Issa

Michael Gordon of the New York Times: "Winding up a day of crisis talks with Iraqi leaders, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday that the Sunni militants seizing territory in Iraq had become such a threat that the United States might not wait for Iraqi politicians to form a new government before taking military action."

Matea Gold & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "... campaign strategists and legal experts nationwide are closely watching the inquiry [into Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's loosey-goosey campaign coordination with the Wisconsin Club for Grown, Karl Rove, etc.] as a major test of what practices cross the line in the loosely governed and increasingly murky area of big-money politics.' Gold & Hamburger try to explain the intricacies of Walker's escapades & how various "non-profits" coordinate with candidates & other political groups. ...

... CW: The best explanation I saw, however, of the bizarre campaign finance laws & their applications was this one by Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart -- who had super-PACs -- & their campaign attorney Trevor Potter:

... Thanks, Supremes! You shmucks.

Drones! Part 2. Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "The number of [drone] accidents [within the U.S.] has jumped as the military has brought back drones from overseas and operated them more frequently in airspace shared with civilian planes. The military has almost tripled the number of hours its drones have flown annually in shared U.S. airspace since 2011, according to federal data."

Drones! Part 3. Craig Whitlock: There has been "a rash of dangerous encounters between civilian airplanes and drones flown in contravention of FAA rules intended to safeguard U.S. airspace. Hazardous occurrences are becoming more frequent as more drones -- legal and illegal -- take to the skies, according to a yearlong investigation by The Washington Post."

ACLU: "In response to a court order in consolidated Freedom of Information Act lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and The New York Times, the Obama administration has released a key Justice Department legal memo on U.S. targeted killing operations. The July 2010 memo was the basis for the government's extrajudicial killing of an American citizen, Anwar al-Aulaqi, in 2011. In the memo, the government claims broad authority to kill American terrorism suspects without judicial process or geographic limitation." The memo is here.

Conservatives Finally Admit Why They Hate ObamaCare: It Helps Poor People. Jonathan Chait: "... conservatives are now representing their true bedrock position on Obamacare. It is largely a transfer program benefitting people who either don't have enough money, or pose too high a health risk, to bear the cost of their own medical care. Conservatives don't like transfer programs because they require helping the less fortunate with other peoples' money."

James Berger of the New York Times on Richard Rockefeller, who died in a small plane crash June 13: "Mr. Rockefeller was what is commonly called a Renaissance man, a Harvard-trained family doctor who could, among other enthusiasms, play the bagpipe, take polished photographs, carve wood, and ski, hike and sail expertly. But he devoted himself to a half-dozen causes, among them healing the wounds of post-traumatic stress disorder, curing sleeping sickness in Africa and saving the seas." ...

... Here is Jim Fallows' brief tribute to his long-time friend: "People often speculate about what they would do 'if they could do anything.' Richard could have done anything, or nothing -- such were his resources and options -- and what he chose to do was be of service, to his friends and family and community and eventually his country and the world."

Beyond the Beltway

It's over, it's done with and I'm moving on. -- Chris Christie, on Bridgegate, June 14, 2014

Bridgegate II. Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "Investigations into the Christie administration and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have zeroed in on possible securities law violations stemming from a $1.8 billion road repair agreement in 2011.... While the inquiries were prompted by the apparently politically motivated lane closings at the George Washington Bridge last year, these investigations center on another crossing: the Pulaski Skyway, the crumbling elevated roadway connecting Newark and Jersey City. They are being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney and the Securities and Exchange Commission." CW: Apparently Christie strong-armed the Port Authority to fund the bridge improvements even though the Pulaski Skyway is a state bridge, not a PA bridge, & therefore not eligible for PA funds. And where was the money to come from? From that much-needed Hudson River rail tunnel that Christie cancelled.

Bridgegate III, IV, Etc. From the same story: "In addition to the Pulaski Skyway, the Manhattan district attorney is also in the early stages of investigating repair projects on the Goethals and Bayonne Bridges, among others.... One person briefed on the matter said the funds had been used to fill a hole in the New Jersey state budget, noting that the inquiries seek to determine whether the fiscal contortions were creative politics or criminal maneuvers."

Congressional Race

Actual Mississippi state flag.Arit John of the Atlantic: "Here's a story that sounds way too familiar: Mississippi conservatives will be watching the polls during Tuesday's primary, to make sure black Democrats aren't breaking any voting laws. Following incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran's outreach to black voters in his bid to ward off a primary challenger, a coalition of conservatives groups backing his Tea Party opponent Chris McDaniel have formed a 'voter integrity project' to 'observe whether the law is being followed.' ..." ...

... CW: I do believe the Justice Department should send a passel of federal marshals to Mississippi to watch the poll watchers. And make arrests. ...

... AND whom do you suppose is coordinating this effort to police black voters? Why, it's Kate Madison's former ward Li'l Kenny! From the New York Times story, by Sheryl Gay Stolberg & Theodore Schleifer: "Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, a political action committee that has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars backing Mr. Cochran's Tea Party opponent, State Senator Chris McDaniel, said in an interview on Sunday that his group was joining with Freedom Works and the Tea Party Patriots in a 'voter integrity project' in Mississippi." Yeah, everybody knows black voters have no integrity. ...

     ... Update. Deborah Berry of the Jackson, Mississippi Clarion-Ledger: "NAACP officials said they will send monitors to the polls in Mississippi today to make sure black voters aren't intimidated when they try to cast ballots in the state's high-profile Senate race.... Mississippi secretary of state's office and the state attorney general's office said state officials will monitor polling places. Officials sent out guidelines Monday for poll watchers, including how far they must stand outside polling sites. Officials said state law makes no provision for political action committees or other outside groups to place 'election observers' at polling places."

MEANWHILE. Josh Kraushaar of the National Journal: "Former Rep. Travis Childers [D] will be announcing he's running for the Senate seat in Mississippi, according to two sources familiar with his decision, giving Democrats a chance to capitalize on the Republican division within the state.... Childers, a Blue Dog Democrat, held a solidly Republican House seat from 2008 to 2010, proving his ability to win over conservative voters despite his Democratic affiliation."

Presidential Election 2016

Brian Beutler has a pretty good piece on Hillary Clinton's recent "gaffes" about her financial status. CW: I've pretty much ignored the hoohah about them because I don't think they're important. Neither does Beutler. I will say that I don't think Clinton knows what it's like to be poor. What she knows is what it's like to be poor compared to her friends. (That's exactly what came out in the Guardian interview.) The Clintons did have money problems while they lived in Arkansas -- a circumstance that led to cattle futures & Whitewater. Bill's salary was negligible. Even though they had free housing & other amenities, Hillary, like many wives before her, had to work. And she had a job where she had to produce -- remember those billing records? Moreover, she had to ask rich people for money, both in her work & in promoting Bill's career. She & Bill hung out with the rich, but Hillary was apparently painfully aware she wasn't one of them. So she knows what it's like to struggle, and she knows what it's like to worry about being kicked out of a house she didn't own (Bill had to run for re-election every two or four years). This should make it pretty easy for her to understand what it's like to wonder how you'll feed the kids & pay the rent, if you'll be fired from your lousy job, if your car will break down & ruin you, etc. ...

... Luckily, Hillary did not communicate her money worries to her daughter. ...

... The Most Boring Young Woman in the U.S. Talks about Herself. And Money. Leslie Larson of the New York Daily News: "Hillary Clinton insists she isn't 'well-off' and now daughter Chelsea, according to a recent interview, claims she couldn't care less about money. 'I was curious if I could care about (money) on some fundamental level, and I couldn't,' she told Fast Company in an interview that ran in the magazine's May edition, explaining why she gave up lucrative gigs to join her family's philanthropic foundation." ...

... Hamilton Nolan of Gawker: "That quote, by the way, is Chelsea's explanation of why she left her earlier job at a hedge fund. The $600K pseudojournalism job reporting on Nice Celebrities Who Are Good came after that. This is all from a profile of Clinton in the The Telegraph this weekend, which contains enough gobsmackingly un-self-aware pontification to prove once and for all that Chelsea Clinton -- who may be bright, capable, and politically savvy -- is also a clueless nepotism beneficiary of the first order.... The problem with nepotism of this sort is ... that these highly desirable, lucrative, and influential jobs are not equally accessible for the non-celebukids of the world.... It is undemocratic. It is unAmerican. To the degree that it persists, the notion of 'equal opportunity' or 'meritocracy' is a joke. For the daughter of the possible presidential candidate from the Democratic Party, this is not a small philosophical concern."

News Ledes

AP: "Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said Tuesday he will not interfere in court rulings, a day after three Al-Jazeera journalists were sentenced to seven years in prison in a verdict that prompted an international outcry.... According to Egypt's constitution, the president has the right to issue a pardon or commute the sentences. U.S., Australian and other officials have urged el-Sissi to use this right to immediately release the journalists. Rights groups have described the trial as a politically motivated sham reflecting the tense relations between Egypt and the Qatar-owned station. Qatar has been a strong supporter of Islamists in the region and in particular Egypt's former president, Mohammed Morsi, overthrown by the military last summer."

Guardian: "David Cameron's former communications chief Andy Coulson is facing jail after being found guilty of conspiring to hack phones while he was editor of the News of the World. Rebekah Brooks, his predecessor in the job, walked free from the Old Bailey after she was cleared of all four of the charges she faced in the eight-month trial."